The challenge will, um, challenge you to grow your blog (or start one if you haven’t yet), build your community, and become an all around more awesome blogger.

Because we want to be sure the person we are sending to Bloggy Boot Camp, Philly to rep us is awesome!

Plus, if we are gonna have you hanging around Tots2Tweens for the next 3 months, we want to know you’re gonna be great!

This challenge will be led by four amazingly talented DC area bloggers who will share their tips with you, give you some doable-now ideas, and ultimately be on the panel for determining your future with Tots2Tweens.

Meet the family: Married to a husband with whom she shares four adorable kiddos.

Why we love her: She’s funny and creative and smart and chic. All things we love to see in a blogger! Her site is not just about home making, in fact it’s not really about home making at all, but it does do a pretty sweet job of sharing with all of us what making a home looks like from the mind of a mom who loves her family, likes to have fun, and knows her way around a power saw. I’ve seen her do it people; don’t mess with this woman’s saw!

Why she thinks you should check out her site:

My readers say they love to stop by my blog because they get a chuckle out of what’s slipping out of my brain that day and our little “chats” help them feel normal. I blog about real life, realistic expectations, cutting ourselves some slack, and being good enough. We laugh a lot (mostly at ourselves, but often at my husband, who we appropriately refer to as The Manchild). We also acknowledge the fact that I am always in the middle of a massively messy home remodeling project and I drag my peeps along with me through those adventures. I love to inspire my readers to be creative with home design and wing it as they go! Come over! Bring a Diet Coke! Let’s start a project (Will we finish it? I dunno. But whatever.)

On Becoming a Blogger

My advice has always been– “What do you have to lose?!” There is absolutely no risk in starting your own blog. No money, no license, and no training. I believe the first year two years, for me at least, have been about discovering balance, discovering what role the blog will play in my life permanently, and what I truly want to write about. At this point I know myself, I know how to manage this hobby (that’s really what it is for me), and I am excited for the next stages of this blog journey! The very best part has been the friends I have made and the people I’ve met.

On Becoming a BETTER Blogger

When we bought our house I found myself changing a lot in the house and my friends wanted to see what was up, so I started the blog to publish my updates. I intended to talk a lot more about the art of homemaking (and it’s importance), but as it turns out, I don’t really like to write about that… Seriously. The blog has evolved more into a humor/lifestyle blog. In fact, I am in the process of a blog name change and re-design, so stay tuned for big changes! Soon I will be “Angie in the Thick of It”… what do you think?

On Challenges Bloggers Face

Staying with it when big life changes hit me has been hard. For instance, summertime and the holidays really make it hard for me to keep it up. Also, when the son of a friend of mine passed away, I fell out of the blog for several weeks. I just couldn’t be here in the same way. AND THAT IS OK! (giving myself a hug) Up to this point, the blog has been exclusively for my own enjoyment. It is just so fun for me to talk to you all and hear back from you! (I love it when people other than my kids talk back ) I purposefully haven’t sought out any advertisers or sponsors, because I DON’T WANT A JOB. However, as I am growing and working out the consistency kinks, I feel like I can and will be more empowered to blog through it all in the future and therefore be able to entertain big bucks from major retailers who will want to give me free stuff and pay for luxury vacations. (That’s how it works, right?)

On Being Pretty and Stuff

I want [my kids] to remember that I was fun, creative, ambitious, and suuuuper pretty. (This is great, because I can almost hear them saying outloud in 20 years, “mom was always too busy to play”… and that makes me sad. I am going to try to make what I WANT them to say align more with what I AM DOING, m’kay?)

Related Posts:

Aaaaand… I’m back! (insert cute picture, because I don’t know how else to start a blog post…) I am so excited to see all of you who participated in part 1.1 of our Blog Awesome Challenge on Wednesday by linking up. If you missed that essential part of this...

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About Amanda Rodriguez

Amanda is your friendly, neighborhood T2T head blogger. She is in charge of bringing the blog awesome to Tots2Tweens on a daily basis! She is a married mom to three cool Dudes (ages 3, 6, & 9) and one baby dog daughter. In addition to making magic here on Tots2Tweens she also writes a pretty fan-freakin-tastic humor parenting blog called parenting BY dummies. When she’s not bringing the pain online or chasing her Dudes up and down a field of some sort she is behind her camera capturing memories for gorgeous people with her Maryland photography business. She also enjoys reality TV (she was even on a show once!), baked goodness, and watching other people take long walks on the beach.

Why didn’t I know you were in DC??? My hubby is from Rockville and I met him while I was a nanny in Potomac. Based on my (limited) experience, there were hardly any stay at home moms there, and certainly no families with more than 2-3 kids……kinda sad….